Human rights | Palestinian authorities systematically torture detained opponents

by time news

A Hamza Zbeidat was arrested on his way to an organized protest last August. After accusing him of insulting “higher authorities”, of “illegal assembly” and of inciting “sectarian strife”, this 38-year-old Palestinian spent three days in an overcrowded cell with hardly any ventilation. Upon leaving prison, he tested positive for covid-19. His experience is one of dozens recorded by Human Rights Watch (HRW). A new report shows how the Palestinian authorities use the systematic violence against critics and opponents.

Over a year ago, prominent activist and critic Nizar Banat died in custody. The autopsy concluded that his lungs filled with blood and secretions. More than a dozen members of the Palestinian Authority (PA) security force arrested and violently assaulted the well-known opponent. He had been detained before for his activism, but became more dangerous to the authorities by announcing his plans to run as an independent in the postponed 2021 legislative elections. Then Palestine rose up.

Hundreds of people took to the streets to denounce the repression of the Palestinian forces. Those demanding justice for Banat’s death were also persecuted. “More than a year after beating Nizar Banat to death, the AP continues to arrest and torturing critics and opponents”, denounced Omar Shakir, the director for Israel and Palestine of HRW. “The systematic abuse by the PA and Hamas forms a critical part of the repression of the Palestinian people,” he noted. The systematic use of torture in both territories could constitute a crime against humanity.

Both the Fatah-led PA in the West Bank and the Hamas authorities in Gaza are responsible for the “systematic practice of arbitrary arrest and torture with impunity,” HRW said in the report alongside the Palestinian group Lawyers for Justice. Palestinian security forces routinely taunt and threaten detaineesresort to solitary confinement and apply beatings, including foot whipping, and force detainees into painful stress positions for prolonged periods, such as lifting their arms behind their backs with cables or ropes, to punish and intimidate detainees. opponents and obtain confessions.

no accountability

During 2021 alone, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) received 252 complaints of torture and ill-treatment and 279 of arbitrary arrest against PA authorities in the West Bank. In Gaza, it was 193 and 97, respectively. But Hamas has executed 28 people in the Strip since they took political control in 2007. Therefore, the parties involved in the investigation have demanded that the countries stop giving aid to the Palestinian security forces, especially the PA police, a key figure in the repression.

But 375 days after Banat’s murder, those responsible have yet to be brought to justice. Despite the fact that prosecutors filed charges against 14 accused security agents, the authorities move slowly and with partiality, as several critics denounce. “Many governments say they want to support the rule of law in Palestine, and yet year after year they continue funding police forces that actively undermine it”, Shakir pointed out. These new and violent discoveries have been brought to the United Nations Committee Against Torture, which will decide how to proceed with Palestinian torture.

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